Binyamin Netanyahu warned Monday, March 10, that because the world chooses to ignore Iran’s concealed nuclear program, the next Klos C ship may not carry missiles but “nuclear suitcases.” debkafile: He was the first Western leader to acknowledge Iran’s possession of nuclear suitcases, which were part of a ten-year old illicit Ukrainian shipment to Iran of six X-55 nuclear capable cruise missiles with a range of 2,000km. A nuclear suitcase can enable terrorist organizations to quickly transport a tactical nuclear or dirty bomb from place to place.

Israel’s top leaders marked the second round of nuclear talks between the Six Powers and Iran with a visit Tuesday, Feb. 18, to injured Syrians at the IDF field hospital in central Golan. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said: “I would like to tell the world today that Iran has changed neither its aggressive policy nor its brutal character…” debkafile: The IDF has thrown up a new dual bulwark on both sides of the Syrian border, including the new Bashan territorial division complete with a high-tech combat intelligence collection battalion.

The six powers and Iran sat down in Geneva Tuesday, Feb. 18 for talks on a final, comprehensive resolution of the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. But first, the Obama administration gave the Israeli government three pledges. debkafile: The US would insist on the shutdown of the Fordo enrichment plant; the Arak reactor’s conversion to a light water plant; and a cap on 5-percent enrichment. They all face Tehran's certain rejection. Binyamin Netanyahu can only try for a ceiling on centrifuges when he meets Barack Obama on March 3.

Iran’s leaders celebrated the 35th anniversary of their Islamic revolution Tuesday, Feb.11, with a torrent of hate rhetoric and threats surpassing even the crudely belligerent language used by former President Ahamedinejad. As his audience burned US and Israeli flags and stamped on placards depicting Obama, President Hassan Rouhani echoed the IRGC leaders in mocking America’s military option, while Khamenei called for Israel’s extermination as a “cancerous growth.” Yet Barack Obama opted not to react and demanded that Prime Minister Netanyahu follow suit.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has informed Washington of his acceptance in principle of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s framework document - subject to reservations raised with US Special Envoy Martin Indyk. A high-ranking US official told debkafile: “We all know the die is cast in Jerusalem and Netanyahu has accepted Kerry’s guidelines. They are now working on the reservations he needs to submit for his government coalition to survive the expected storm of protest and resistance and for the talks with the Palestinians to carry on” to a final accord.

The give-and-take over an Israeli-Palestinian accord, doggedly kept afloat by US Secretary of State John Kerry, is evolving into a complex personal dynamic: Israel’s A-team - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon – are not of one mind on the issues; Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s popular base is infamously narrow and flimsy. And John Kerry, too, needs to overcome reservations in President Obama’s White House team to obtain his blessing. He is not entirely sure he will get it.

Eilat come under missile attack from Sinai every few days, like Gaza’s Israeli neighbors - harmlessly thus far. But the Red Sea tourist resort is paying for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yaalon’s short-sighted policy of security and intelligence cooperation with Egypt’s Gen. Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. Direct action against Gaza and Sinai terror has passed into Egyptian hands. This gap in Israel’s security has been seized on by the Islamist Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis terrorists to take the country hostage against El-Sisi’s counter-terror offensive.

Binyamin Netanyahu reasserted his authority Wednesday, Jan. 29 by forcing pro-settlement Jewish Home party leader and minister to apologize for offending him under threat of dismissal. But Bennett did not back down on the issue itself. In another setback to the prime minister's credibility, US Ambassador Dan Shapiro denied that the framework document Secretary John Kerry was about to present was an “American document” as Netanyahu claimed, but reflected Israeli-Palestinian points of agreement. The Military Intelligence chief then revealed “170,000 rockets are threatening Israel”.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas launched his “diplomatic intifada” against Israel Thursday, Jan. 23, from Moscow. In his talks with Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, he marked the Palestinian breakaway from the Kerry peace process with Israel, four months before it was due to expire, and his bid for its replacement by Russian backing for a Palestinian state. Abbas’s defection caught both Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Binyamin - and their intelligence agencies – napping, busy in Switzerland far from the action.

Israeli politicians, left, right and center, are resorting again to their familiar clichés in trading accusations over where ongoing negotiation with the Palestinians should or should not be going. Meanwhile, the Palestinians have other plans, the first of which is to quit peace talks with Israel. The next, come April, is to enlist 63 international organizations for a massive boycott against Israel in every sphere. This diplomatic “intifada” is expected to trigger violent Palestinian assaults from the West Bank, including possibly rockets on Israeli towns.

As the Mid East peace talks turn to Jerusalem, Netanyahu offers to give up to the Palestinians the Arab suburbs of Jerusalem. Abbas refuses and instead plots a broad-based international boycott against Israel.

US Vice President Joe Biden when he met Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Monday night, Jan. 13, refused to disclose details of agreements which the Americans claimed were reached by the six powers and Iran in their talks earlier this week on the implementation of their first-stage Geneva accord. This is reported by debkafile. This refusal signals a further sharp decline in US-Israeli strategic relations.
At the same time, Tehran contradicts the White House statement purporting an agreement for Iran to start dismantling its enrichment infrastructure on Jan. 20.

Russia and Iran are about to sign an oil-for-goods transaction worth $1.5 billion a month - $18bn a year - that would substantially help lift Iran’s oil exports out of range of Western sanctions, the deterrent by which President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu set so much store. debkafile: The deal is about to be signed ahead of any accord negotiated between Iran and the world powers on its nuclear program. Tehran has thus won a Russian safety belt for playing hard to get against the West in the ongoing negotiations.

While Netanyahu has been won round to Kerry’s framework, Abu Mazen faces a chorus of opposition from the Palestinian leadership condemning the US secretary’s document as pro-Israeli and selling the Palestinians short.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu plans to hold the first popular referendum in Israel’s history for ratifying the amended peace framework proposal which US Secretary of State John Kerry is drafting for presentation in the coming weeks, debkafile reveals. The prime minister is now in favor of accepting the Kerry framework and, although they don’t see eye to eye on many of the issues, he believes the gaps between them can be bridged.
For details of the framework and state of play, read the coming DEBKA Weekly out next Friday

Secretary of State John Kerry returns Sunday night, Jan. 5 for another shuttle between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas after time-out for dropping in on Amman and Riyadh. debkafile: Kerry ordered his team to shelve the proposed US framework after he saw the gaps getting wider instead of narrower on the core issues of the dispute. In Amman, he found King Abdullah totally apposed to the integration of Palestinian security and intelligence bodies in security arrangements in the Jordan Valley and West Bank.